To learn more about your counterpart’s interests and tradeoffs, you can present her with a choice of two packages of equal value to you, and—without asking her to accept or reject either—ask her which package is better for her. If you have designed your packages carefully, you will learn something about her side’s tradeoffs, and move in a value-creating direction while revealing little about your preferences.

Similarly, if you are a buyer of a multi-featured product or service, you can ask the seller to price the product or service both with and without a certain feature. In this way, you can learn about their tradeoffs without revealing yours.

Naturally, it takes more than a few clever tactics to steer a negotiation your way. Combined with the upfront effort spent designing and setting up the deal, fostering goodwill by sharing and eliciting information wisely will help keep a negotiation moving in a productive direction.

David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius are the authors of 3D Negotiation – Powerful Tools to Change the Game in Your Most Important Deals (Harvard Business School Press, September 2006). For more information see their book website www.3dnegotiation.com and their business website www.negotiate.com.

Adapted with permission from Harvard Business School Press from 3-D Negotiation: Powerful Tools to Change the Game in Your Most Important Deals by David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius. Copyright 2006 David A. Lax and James K. Sebenius. All Rights Reserved.